The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-09-28
" BUCKEYES" "
HOW CHEAP OIL PAINTINGS ARE
MANUFACTURED
Various Portions Of the Canvas
Painted at the Same Time
Copies OF Fine Oil Paint
ings Sold as Originals.

ings Sold as Originals.
The manufacture OF genuine oil
paintings" is quite an industry in New
York, and the Mail and Erpress gives
this account of the business:
What are technically known as "buck-
eyes" are produced in great numbers at
establishments in several of the large
cities Girls who have been trained 10
the degree of mechanical skill necessary
for making copy of the picture before
them, or rather that part of it which is
given them to duplicate, show remark
able facility in accomplishing their task.
In some of the workshops the walls are
covered with strips of canvas, upon which
the copyists are busily at work. One
paints the sky and the distant effects an
other follows with the foreground; an
other paints the figures, and still another
finishes the picture. The work is done
with great rapidity, but the result, as
might be expected, is not pleasing to an
artistic eye. Yet the facility attained by
constant practice is such that the rude
copies of landscape thus produced bear
sufficient resemblance to the original to
give them market value as pictures.
One of the largest manufactures of
cheap paintings in this country is in New
York. A thrce-story building is devoted
to the business, and when the demand
was at its height, few years ago, nearly
one thousand pictures week were turned
out. Some of the processes employed
! are peculiar to these manufacturers, and
the upper story, which is the 'studio,"
Or workshop; is carefully guarded against
intrusion. The doors are kept locked,
and no one except those employed in the
establishment is allowed to enter. A
! representative of the Ma0 and Express,
however, obtained admission, witnessed
! the methods of manufacture, and saw
the pictures grow to completion under
the hands of the busy "artists." The
first step in the production of the brill
liant landscape in guilt frame which is
to be the SUBJ iect Of the auctioneer or the
picture peddler is the preparation of the
canvass. This is done by means of
machine which coats long strip of cot
ton cloth with a mixture of glue and
whiting and gives it something of the
frmncss and appearance of canvas. The
cloth is then thoroughly dried and is
then ready for the stretcher or inner
frame. The stretchers are produced by
an ingenious machine which shapes,
joints and fastens them with great ra-
pidity, and by third machine, which is
tended by small boy of artistic pro-
clivities, the cloth is quickly fastened
upon the stretcher and made ready for
the coming landscape. Next comes the
work of the Studio" There one findsa
line of girls, their dresses slashed with
paint, and their general appearance, in
other respects, quite in contrast with the
young women at the Art Students
League or the ideal woman artist in
we'll appointed studio. On the walls,
within easy reach, hang stencils of va
rious patterns which the girls have
learned to use with great rapidity. The
process employed is similar to what is
known as Theorem painting, and also as
Poonah, or Oriental painting. By the
use of a kind of stencil the outlines are
one after another put upon the cloth, and
the picture then passes into the hands of
more advanced painter for completion.
A few skilful touches with her brush
supply the deficiencies left by the use
of the stencil, and after a plentiful sup
ply of varnish, and suitable exposure in
the drying-room, the picture is ready for
market. The frames are made by
machinery in the story below the
"studio." They are much thinner than
they appear to be, but, although so un-
substantial, are quite ornamental in de.
sign, and after being covered with
metallic preparation known to the trade
as dutch metal" or Clutch gilt"
which closely resembles gold leaf, but
has not q particle of gold in its compost
tion, they are dazzling enough to
satisfy the most exacting purchaser. So
1t will be seen that in these ''genuine oil
paintings" the oil which is used is about
The only thing to justify the term. Little
else is genuine. The canvas is cotton
cloth, smeared with glue and whiting;
the frame, apparently so substantial, is
mere shell, and the shining gliding has
no gold about it. The result of all this
cheap artistic labor is that these "genuine
ill paintings" measuring 22x36 inches,
surrounded with glittering gilt frames
and boxed for shipment, are sold at from
$15 to $50 dozen.
When the auction sales of these pic
lures by gaslight are held during the
LAY, as was the case in New York few
gears since, and is still the custom in the
smaller cities, the pictures are hung upon
the walls of room, which is lighted by
rows of gas jets so as to show the tawdry
canvases to the best advantage. AS each
picture is reached in the catalogue, it is
placed on brilliantly lighted easel, and
The glib-tongued auctioneer expatiates
upon its value and points out its many
/ beauties. BY means of by-bidders the
price is sometimes run up to high figure.
Pictures that cost at the factory $40 to
$50 dozen occasionally bring $25 to $40
each, and sometimes even q more ridicu-
lous price. This is the sort of traffic
which the law against selling pictures by
gaslight was intended to reach. But
unfortunately the prohibition affects the
business of the honest dealers as we'll as
that of the trickster in this trade